Sharks are caught as bycatch in fisheries targeting tuna, swordfish, and other species at enormous scale, with significant welfare implications for populations already under pressure.
Shark bycatch welfare involves both immediate and delayed harm: sharks brought to the surface experience decompression, temperature shock, and physical injury from hooks and handling. Those returned to the sea may die from injuries or exhaustion. The scale — potentially hundreds of millions of individual sharks annually — makes this one of the largest marine vertebrate welfare problems in global fisheries. The welfare and conservation case for bycatch reduction measures converge completely — reducing shark capture benefits both individual welfare and population recovery.